Kogi Guber: Eastern zone learnt how only unity can win election – Melaye

By Idris Ahmed

The defeated governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye, has expressed satisfaction that a single ethnic group can not win election in Kogi State.

The former Senator, blamed failure of the opposition due to lack of political will to unite for the progress of the state, regretting that the people of the Eastern Senatorial refused to carry other zones along during the campaigns.

A lot of lessons should have been learnt from the November 11 governorship election in Kogi state.

He said, “One key take home from the governorship election was that Kogi East people now know more than ever before that they cannot win the governorship seat without support from other Senatorial districts.”

Melaye, also advised during the PDP post election dinner, also advised that Kogi West should learn from the last election and listen to the words of wisdom from the elders, not from commercialised characters who because of their individual and selfish interests created problems for the state.

“One of the lessons is that the East now knows more than ever before that they cannot become governor alone.

“You will have to collaborate with another zone to become governor. We went through these elections, irrespective of the outcome, irrespective of betrayals, and so many things,” the PDP candidate said.

Apparently buttressing the government’s stance that Kogi State is peaceful, the former Senator confirmed that he had a very peaceful campaign, insisting that all his tours were devoid of violence.

He said, “Throughout the campaign, not once did we have any gunshot at us. Not even once. We were moving around the state throughout the dead nights. In fact, we even went to Bassa.

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“We were driving through that very lonely road on unholy hours of the night. We got to Anyigba at about hours like 12 midnight or 1am and the kind of stories of gunshots, there were no cases of gunshots at us or the kind of killings like what we were told when the SDP visited any other place in the East.

“We didn’t experience any of such, we didn’t lose any soul. This, we are grateful to God.”

He also regretted the betrayal by some leaders of the West for not wholeheartedly working with him, saying that they contributed to his defeat.

“There was this very false message that some leaders from the West that one of my leaders said that I wanted to create confusion. Yet some leaders insisted and said this is what they were going to do. Everybody has been served breakfast.

“I want to believe that by the grace of God, we have learnt a lot of lessons from this election. We gave Kogi the type of campaign they have never seen. That’s the truth,” he noted.

Melaye, however, gave himself and his team thumbs up for running “a sophisticated campaign.”

“We had a policy document that took about three months to put together and we had the message and we went round. And by the grace of God, we cannot also say we lost because there was no election.

“By the time we do the statistics, what we spent in this election has never been spent by PDP in the history of Kogi State. We know. I mean, we know that,” he said.

While urging his supporters not to despair or disillusioned and be disenchanted, Melaye said they should not lose hope as there would be another opportunity in the near future.

“It’s for us to hold ourselves together as a political family and say what we lost on the streets, we will regain at the roundabout. And this election also taught a lot of lessons,” he stated.